Fogd Dreyers gate (street) is situated on the eastern side of Tromsø island, just north of the town centre – on the slope leading down to Tromsø sound. The street was mostly built between 1910 and 1920, and at that time was populated by working and lower middle classes. The 29 houses in this street were constructed during a period of considerable housing shortage in the town. The housing here was, almost without exception, built as multi-apartment houses and small tenement dwellings. The houses stand individually on small plots and are built over two storeys, plus basement and loft – where the basement and the ground and first floors were mostly rented out, while the house owner himself, in the beginning, generally lived up in the loft. This elevated use of the plot, incorporating many housing units, is architectonically visible in the roof construction, with crossing gable roofs and mansard roofs, as well as built-on staircases. The addition of staircase access to every floor is linked to the square shape of the building

this construction has given rise to the expression “rucksack house”.

Many of the houses in the street have been through various different types of renovation over the past 20 years and the number of apartments has been considerably reduced, but the overall character of the houses has been retained.

1910-1920

Housing

Timber, logs, planking

residence

woodwork

timber

planking

Hegstad, Sveinulf, Tromsø bysamfunn – sosial lagdeling, boliger og boforhold 1900-1920, Universitetet i Tromsø 1993
Hegstad, Sveinulf (ed.), Fotefar mot nord, Tromsø. Byvandringer. Tromsø uå (1997)